The Master (15): It's Masterful stuff

The Master (15): It's Masterful stuff

Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, whose previous films include the equally unusual Boogie Nights, has made a fascinating and unique drama.

Anderson's screen story, which is set in the 1950s, charts what happens to disturbed war veteran sailor Joaquin Phoenix after he falls under the spell of the charismatic but seriously strange cult leader Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

When we first meet Phoenix, he's relaxing on a beach in the Pacific with his fellow US sailors.

His happy days end when, suffering from post-traumatic stress, he re-enters civilian life only to be fired for attacking a customer when he goes to work as a department store photographer and then moving on to be a moonshiner. But everything changes for the weirder after he meets Hoffman.

He is soon in thrall to the cult leader who sums up his oddball philosophy by saying: "If you figure out a way to live without a master, any master, be sure to let the rest of us know, for you would be the first in the history of the world".

Tough Phoenix's unlikely experiences as Hoffman indoctrinates him - he wrestles with Hoffman, touts for new members on the pavement, and crosses swords with the Master's wife Amy Adams - are enthralling, if often tough to follow.

What makes The Master masterly, however, are Phoenix and Hoffman's mesmerising performances. They both deserve to be rewarded with Oscars.

(But don't expect Tom Cruise and John Travolta to be cheering them if they win since Anderson's storyline features fascinating echoes of Scientology).